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Tribal Trouble: The Changing Nature of American Jews’ Relationship to Israel and the Question of Jewish Unity

By Shaul Magid

…ic event, there is nothing that can galvanize Jewish unity again. Not even Israel. Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel Dov Waxman Princeton University Press April 12, 2016 In his latest book Dov Waxman weighs in on this phenomenon of civil disunity with acumen and verve, showing how the American diaspora has produced a collective that no longer views Israel as the sine qua non of its identity.* The nation-state of Israel…

Too Hot for Shul: Rabbis Seek Healthy Israel Dialogue After Gaza

By Sarah Posner

…t arrived on the scene less than a decade ago, billing itself as a pro-Israel alternative to the long-dominant American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Despite Stutman’s optimism about synagogues as the locus for difficult conversations about American Judaism’s most contentious topic, few rabbis believe they are able to create a space where conversations can take place without participants’ fear of recrimination. Rabbis are “terrified” of talking…

An Open Letter to CEO Jeff Smisek On United Airlines’ Blasphemous Safety Video

By Austin Dacey

Dear Mr. Smisek: Delayed flights, telephone customer care wait times, negotiations between United Continental Holdings and its employees: these are among the things with which this letter is not concerned, you may be relieved to know. Perhaps you would agree that in the final analysis, such things are of no concern. No, Mr. Smisek, this message is not the grievance of a disgruntled customer. It is a witness to an abomination. It is a plea for spi…

Pariah or Charmed Hero: America’s Obsession with Jews and Israel

By Shaul Magid

…e assumption has always been that Israel’s interests and America’s were parallel—inspiring Supreme Court Justice and Zionist Louis Brandeis to say that being a Zionist was being a good American—and to a great extent this has been the case. Still, when dealing with two autonomous and sovereign states this rule cannot be ironclad. The Israel Lobby attempts to show the ways in which Israel’s and America’s interests do not always coincide and to then…

The Collapse of the American Jewish Center

By Sarah Posner

…tion, these dissenters charge, not only unquestioningly supports the official Israeli narrative that Hamas left Israel no choice but to attack—and no choice but to target locations packed with civilians—but fails to acknowledge and address the ongoing violence and repression inherent in the occupation. That institutional reaction, additionally, fails to reckon with countervailing evidence to the official Israeli narrative of the immediate causes o…

RDBook: Bernard Avishai’s The Hebrew Republic

By Mitchell Plitnick

…aeli society into five groups he calls “tribes.” Tribe One is the traditional Israeli elite, generally Ashkenazi, secular and cosmopolitan. Tribe Two is the Mizrahim, largely working class, more culturally traditional than the elites of Tribe One, generally leaning more toward the right. Tribe Three is the newest sector in Israel. Made up primarily of Russian speakers, this community hails from the former USSR. Tending towards nationalism, they ar…

Despite Conflation of Israel with Judaism, Anti-Zionism is More Kosher Than You Think

By Seth Sanders

…Africa made that claim in the International Court of Justice. In response, Israel’s government spokesman Eylon Levy dismissed the genocide charge as a “blood libel”—historically, the false claim by European Christians that Jews used the blood of Christian babies to bake Matzoh, which resulted in mob violence against defenseless Jewish communities. (Incidentally, if you want to see how an actual blood libel functions, read about the response to wha…

Electionpocalypse, Part II: The Mythical Jewish Vote

By Sarah Posner

…ed story that ran under the headline, “Romney’s Pro-Palestinian Wing Riles Israel Supporters.” I’ll get to the substance momentarily, but first here’s the correction: Correction: This article originally quoted Nick Hawatmeh as saying Romney supports a six-state solution—he actually said he supports a two-state solution. Any reporter who thought that her source might have said “six-state solution” while speaking of the Israel-Palestine conflict sho…

Transforming America’s Israel Lobby

By Dan Fleshler

…what they say even among themselves, how can they expect America’s political elite to push for a different American approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict? How can they expect anyone in the executive branch to avoid anticipatory vetoes and start showing more courage? And how can they expect to make common cause with non-Jewish Americans who share their goals and could add political impetus for change? It is time for the anti-occupation wing of the…

Goliath the Israel Slayer: Why Max Blumenthal’s New Book is a Painful Read

By Shaul Magid

While almost all the energy for and against Israel these days seems focused on the current “situation” (Israelis call it ha-mazav) as to whether there will or will not be, can or can no longer be, two states, there is another conversation that is less apparent: what does it mean, at this moment, to be a Zionist, Anti-Zionist, non-Zionist? This was once a very serious debate, and still is in some parts of Israeli society. But for much of American…